At least 500 people have been killed and another 1,000 wounded after a 6 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
The disaster struck at 11.47pm and was centered 17 miles east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad, in Nangarhar province.
It was only five miles deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage.
A second earthquake struck the same province just 20 minutes later, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 6.2 miles. This was later followed by a 5.2 earthquake at the same depth.
Entire villages in the province of Kunar are believed to have been destroyed and dozens of houses turned into rubble, Taliban sources say.
Footage shows people digging through the rubble with their bare hands to rescue their trapped family members.
It is difficult to confirm the death toll immediately – and the number is set to rise in the coming hours – as the earthquake-hit areas are mountainous and remote.
Ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said: ‘Figures from a few clinics show over 400 injured and dozens of fatalities.’
But he warned of higher casualties. Helicopters were shown ferrying out the affected, while residents helped soldiers and medics carry the wounded to ambulances.
Rescuers were scrambling to find survivors in the area bordering Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, where homes of mud and stone were levelled.
A foreign office spokesperson said: ‘So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work.’
The Taliban government said in a statement on X that the earthquake has caused ‘loss of life and property damage in some eastern provinces’.
It added: ‘Local officials and residents are currently engaged in rescue efforts for the affected people. Support teams from the centre and nearby provinces are also on their way.’
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.
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